Opioid Crisis: Filmmaker Details The Medical System's 'Crime Of The Century'

The opioid crisis in the U.S. has never gone away.

Almost every year, more people die of opioid overdoses than in the year before. More than a half million people have died from prescription painkillers, heroin and illicit fentanyl since 1999. Provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that more than 66,000 people died of an opioid overdose in the U.S. in the 12 months to September 2020, a huge jump from the previous 12 months.

It's not just a crisis destroying communities and plunging countless people into addiction, but a crime, says documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney. His new documentary on HBO is called The Crime of the Century.

It's a crime, he says, that was committed by pharmaceutical companies, distributors, pharmacists and doctors, all looking to profit.

Many well-known companies in health care have been involved in manufacturing and distribution of opioids, including Johnson & Johnson, Mallinckrodt, Endo International, Allergan, Teva, McKesson, Walgreens, Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen, CVS and Walmart.